Lent and Easter Wisdom From Thomas Merton: Daily Scripture and Prayers Together With Thomas Merton's Own Words

by The Merton Institute for Contemplative Living

The Holy Spirit never asks us to renounce anything without offering us something much higher and much more perfect in return.…The function of self-denial is to lead to a positive increase of spiritual energy and life.

The tendency to substitute words about freedom for the reality of freedom itself has brought us to a state of ambivalent spiritual servitude. The noise with which we protest our love of freedom tends to be proportionate to our actual fear of genuine freedom, and our guilt at our unconscious refusal to pay the price of freedom.

Our abdication of responsibility is at the same time an abdication of liberty.